Bhubaneswar, May 24: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today asked the administration to complete the construction of the Keonjhar Government Medical College and Hospital within two years. This comes a few days after Naveen making a surprise visit to inspect the work at the Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College at Baripada in Mayurbhanj district.

The state plans to spend around Rs 314 crore for the medical college project in Keonjhar, which will have a 100-bed hospital.

"Once the medical college is completed, it will address the health issues of the people of the tribal-dominated and mineral-rich Keonjhar district," said a senior government official, adding that the tender process for the project had already been completed and the Tata Project had been awarded the work.

The chief minister had laid the foundation stone for a 100-seat medical college at district headquarters town of Keonjhar in July, 2013. Initially, the project was promoted through a joint venture. However, later the private company withdrew from the project.

Local people had raised the demand for the medical college and hospital arguing that the government, which earns crores of rupees as royalty from the mineral-rich area every year, was not paying any attention to the health requirements of the tribal people.

Following this development, the chief minister took up the issue personally and announced that a government medical college would come up in the district.

In November 2016, Naveen laid the foundation stone for the government medical college and hospital at Kabitra, four kilometres from the district headquarters town of Keonjhar and announced that the state government would provide funds for its overall development. The state has three government-run medical colleges, while another seven medical college are coming up in places such as Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Puri, Balangir, Balasore, Kalahandi and Keonjhar.

While admissions to the new medical colleges in Koraput and Mayurbhanj will begin this year, efforts are on to admit students in other colleges from next academic session as well. However, the Opposition is of the view that the government should also provide adequate infrastructure to the medical colleges in the state to ensure that these institutes produced good doctors.